Easyjet disruptive passengers
 

Was on an Easyjet flight to Marrakech on Sunday when a female passenger caused much disruption. Ended up with the Captain in the cabin trying to sort it out and the passenger being escorted off by police on arrival. On the return flight, two passengers nearly got into a fight over locker space! Was it my bad luck or just Easyjet's treatment of the cattle that leads to so much grief?

Probably the cattle. Too many don't know how to behave.

On your inbound flight into RAK at what point did the Captain come into the cabin to address the problem?

I would not say this is a problem of easyJet's making, but rather a sad reflection on today's society.

Incidents of "air rage" occur on every type of carrier from low cost to legacy... Heck even on private charters.

"...treatment of the cattle"
 

If your premise is correct then MOL will be selling tickets for the regular punch ups on Ryanair given that his company wins out every time in the bovine transport department.

As he is not, I for one would discount this premise as the cause.

Which is not to belittle in any way what I take to be your concern for what must be a most unpleasant not to say frightening experience for the other passengers.

You don't mention booze. Were any of the passengers involved under the influence would be my first question and/ or premise ? (Though I am well aware that plenty of members of the great British public can be nauseatingly obstreperous even when stone cold sober.)

The captain came into the cabin probably an hour into the flight and it took a good 15 mintues and help from several passengers to get the unruly behaviour of the passenger under control and have her located between two guys elsewhere in the cabin so she could be controlled. It even appeared that a steward had to guard the cockpit door any time anyone went in/out. - although I suppose that could be standard practise?

Very clearly stipulated , in Ryanair, & I think pretty much all companies, no matter what happens in Cabin, flightdeck crew ABSOLUTELY prohibited from leaving the cockpit to intervene (in some respects a bit anal I know, & sometimes you really WOULD like to come back to deck the b@stards, but I think we all know / understand where this prohibition came from.)
So, if this report isn't just BS, one more DEC vacancy in FR methinks.

Captain I agree with everything you said... But this is about easyJet not FR :)

However the same policy applies at easy.

I'm sure the airline are going to know the captain left the cockpit as the police met the aircraft, so I guess an MOR will have been filed.

Could you please elaborate on what she was doing that was disruptive?

Shouting, threats or actually getting physical with crewmembers / passengers?

I've no idea what the trigger was but she was being very vocal and stoppy with the cabin crew and wouldn't shut up even when the captian tried to calm her down. Fortunately a couple of other male passengers managed to talk to her and eventually she relocated to a seat between them and calm was restored.

Leaving the cockpit in flight is a NO NO ! ! Forget Ryanair / Easy Jet whatever, it's the same everywhere now.

Why do you think we have this wonderful expensive door ?

Much as we (used to ) do it, now, absolutely VERBOTEN.

Bad news, you can't be " Captain Fantastic" & tackle total tossers head -on :}

Good news, you don't confuse "Total Tossers" with "Al Q" or something equally sinister , & get a pointed object forcibly inserted amongst your internal organs :ok:.


Bit worrying (particularly for the Capt involved) if this ISN'T BS

Be pretty awkward if the bastard decked you. Could happen, no matter how heavy your four stripes are.

Indeed, & sometimes, the regulations actually do us a service, particularly if we are small (physically) aggressive little b@stards.

In fact, it was never a good idea anyhow,even in the past, as someone who is actually up for a fight, is unlikely to bother much about ones regalia, & the outcome was much more likely to be decided by mass/brawn as opposed to intellect/status. Sometimes the more primeval part would like to react, most probably for the good (of ones face) we are not allowed to , any more.

The Captain has the authority to do whenever he wants in an emergency, including deviating from any SOP´s he deems necessary to ensure the safety of the aircraft and its passengers. Period.

It was his decision, thats whats he's/ she's paid for. NO ONE here knows what the circumstances were so cannot make a judgement.

Unruly
 

True, unfortunatly reality of today´s societey. When we went to fly in the 70´s as a Pax we had worn suit and tie and the Girls the Sunday dress...... look today. We have around one trouble maker in a month. Doesn´t matter if they smoke, argue, bringing plants on bord or just are up to get attention because they think they can. If they get too noisy then they can fly too... from the Pax-list if the problem starts during the bording.

We had recently another 30 min. delay because of taking two Pax off and looking for the bags. It would of no use if I would start to intervene from face to face and end up up punched. There are very "sensible" Security and Police Officers around who have been trained to handle it and do not hesitate to grap the moment to use the trained skills one to one and set the pace.

If it is during the flight we do not hesitate to land somewhere else and off load the person or group. Strictly obey the security thread to be removed. The costs born to that will be handed over, mostly a fruitless attempt, to the trouble causing Pax.

By the way I had unruly´s in First or Business Class as well during the middle of the night over the Pacific in the past, so not only Kettle.

Well said.

Leaving fd not required this side of the pond for obvious reasons.But a Captain can take whatever measure he thinks best to ensure safety.And if they fire him,he should sue.Company SOP's are superceded by regs.Aviation needs more Captains and less SOP puppets.He would have considered his actions carefully,taken all necessary precautions and then acted.That is perfectly normal and correct.Assuming of course that this is what happened.

Poor show the cabin crew couldn't deal with the very situation they are paid and trained to actually do. These low cost airlines that insist on promoting on "merit" (the staff best as sucking up to management) will always fall foul when these situations occur as the senior crew members are not always the best to deal with it.

As cabin crew myself I would not want either of the pilots dealing with any situation, they are there to get ME safely on the ground not mess about with some stupid drunk Brit.

It is not forbidden for UK flight crew to leave the cockpit. Or do they all wear nappies? Very few a/c have toilets in the flight deck. On long multi crew flight Capts often visit the pax cabin for a chat.

A friend of mine regularly forwards me NAVCAN's daily incident reports. I've noted that WestJet flights regularly (i.e. more than two or three times a week) have reports of disruptive passengers. i.e. where police/security are requested to meet the aircraft. Disruptions include smoking in the lavs, fighting, drunken behaviour on board and at the gate, stealing from the drinks trollies, drinking own booze (and refusing to stop) etc.

Once in a while you might see something from an AC or Jazz flight but probably only once a month or so.

No comment on the quality of the passengers, and perhaps AC doesn't ask for assistance (or report incident to NAVCAN). But one does wonder.

I am not surprised at all by what happened. Just look at the way society is heading (In general terms). No respect, no education, no manners, no morals and the list goes on...

Disruptive passengers... by nationality of passenger
 

Anyone able to inform us of any league tables ?

Does the politically correct / company-reputation-saving strategem of not admitting or reporting or encouraging reporting or indeed allowing (by many management strategies related to promotion for instance) reporting go on in the airline industry as in so many other walks of life, I wonder

We had an issue on an Easyjet flight at TFS where a passenger got up during the take off run to search for something in her bag which was in an overhead locker!

Also Easyjet where immediately on landing people get up to get bags down whilst we were slowing down still on the runway. More than once, again TFS.

I've found the Moroccans to be, in general, very aggressive passengers. Trying to get them to sit down and put their bags away is like herding cats. If they take umbrage to a request or an instruction from Cabin Crew they will scream and shout and cause disruption until they get their own way. It may be a cultural difference.

Maybe it's time each seat is not only fitted with a lifejacket, but also a TASER:eek:

Whilst money is no guarantee for reasonable behaviour (or intelligence) these days, the relatively high financial barrier in former years did keep out the worst of society.

Herding sheep or cats?
 

Telstar,

Surely sheep are easy to herd - don't you mean cats?

It was a few years ago now but in my airline the captain had a truncheon at his disposal and full authority to use it. Wasn't it just a few years ago when a BA flight engineer armed with a C02 fire extinguisher went down the back to subdue a recalcitrant idiot. With the extinguisher pointed right in his face the man quickly sat down.

On another occasion in my old company, the female FA's were getting felt up by a drunken bush-lawyer Pacific islander on a flight Hong Kong to Guam via Taipei. . The next port of call was Taipei. The captain decided to sort out the islander personally as it was obvious the FA's were unable to do so. He shirt fronted the islander and said unless the bloke sat down and behaved himself he (the captain) would arrange for the Taiwan police to meet the aircraft and take way the islander to be tortured. It was no empty threat and it worked a treat.

It is such a pity that the rules and regs in theory prevent the captain from leaving the flight deck and thus leave the flight attendants to get beaten up by some drunken bum while the flight crew lock themselves safely behind the door and pretend not to know what is happening down the back. The FA's can only hope some passengers will come to their aid if things turn nasty while the flight crew cower behind their locked door.

Wiglyamp's first post describes the passengers as cattle; is that his impression of the passengers or his desciption of the way Easyjet treats their passengers? Either way I think he has lost the plot. For the many flights I have done on EasyJet the aircraft, the cabin crew, service, and yes, the punctuality have been brilliant. You get a good service at a low cost. If people do not like the service there are always altenatives but their loads keep up as do their profits and that's what business is all about. I have nothing to do with EasyJet, just a fan of them.

I can remember a colleague of mine in Laker going back into the cabin to try to reason with a large stroppy American passenger. The passenger laid him out cold. The F/O closed the throttles and diverted straight into Winnipeg. The passenger ended up in jail.

In those days, the smart answer was to send the F/E back with the fire axe.

BTW: Today LO002 (KORD-EPWA) had to land in EGPF due to the passenger messing-up.

Some years back I was pax down the back-end of a Northwest 747 from MSP-LGW. During the latter stages of the flight some exciteable young American chaps were drinking and getting a bit rowdy (not abusive, or violent, just a bit boisterous and a pain to those sat around them trying to sleep, travelling with kids etc).

When we arrived at the gate at LGW, and before any pax were disembarked, two of the largest PC's I have ever seen came onboard, proceeded to the back of the aircraft and, in no uncertain terms, but calmly, told these chaps that "they would be returning direct back to the US unless they started to behave themselves".

The silence was immediate :ok:

Why is the Captain's intervention supposed to work any better than, say, the purser? I mean the man has training to fly a plane; not to be a bouncer in a bar!

I like easyJet F/As, but there again I also like Ryanair F/As. Which one should I chose?


There's only one way to find out -










FIGHT !







:D:D:D:D:D:D SGC

What's the ratio of PAX traffic between the 70's and now? Obviously there will be more incidents. Has the number of incidents per passenger-hour flown spiked? I bet not.

You're right in that the pilot is there to fly the plane, however they are in charge of the aircraft,m everything on it and everyone sitting behind them.

In days gone by when a captain spoke to a passenger they would have been seen as a figure of authority and the passenger would almost certainly have shut up and sat down and stayed that way until the plane landed. Nowadays the pilot is just seen as another target for some of the idiots who fly. Someone else to argue with, lash out at or ignore. TV shows like Airline have shown people that if the break the rules, they can still get away with it, or if they shout and scream at staff, they'll still be allowed to go on their way. It's always the airlines fault, always the crews fault, no-one is able to take irresponsibility for their own actions any more.

Thankfully the vast majority of passengers are perfectly well behaved individuals who do follow simple instructions.

I am not surprised at all by what happened. Just look at the way society is heading (In general terms). No respect, no education, no manners, no morals and the list goes on...

Exactly, it is evident everywhere. Couple of years ago I missed a connection out of CDG, wife two kids in tow. Only option was RYR last flight Friday night out of Bouvais, to PIK. 560.00 at gate, and you would have thought I was flying in an open sewer. I was utterly astonished at the behaviour, and drunkeness. They actually had an Irish bar at the terminal, and you wonder why there are issues once in the air????
*

There's nothing particularly unusual about unruly behaviour on public transport - which is what a low-cost flying is. Such disturbances are so common on trains, and to some extent on buses, that they are rarely reported, and the history of them goes back as far as the history of public transport. What is happening now is not that people are becoming more unruly - there have always been unruly people - but that flying has become so common that the incidences appear to be greater. Statistically - and I have no figures to prove it - I suspect that nothing much has changed.

The passengers, where fit and able, have a duty of care to ensure their own and other pax's and cabin attendants protection. The pointy end crew should never have to get involved. other than to radio for police to meet the aircraft on arrival.

I have never had to intervene in a situation on-board an aircraft (Canadians seem to be more civilized then some). However, once, on a bus a woman driver let a low life on-board without paying the fare and said, "Alright, I'll take you across the bridge". Across the bridge he did not get up and get off so she told him to get off. He came roaring up the bus and as he got to the driver his right arm was outstretched, fist clenched. I was sitting right there and grabbed his right wrist and the scruff of his neck. She told him to get off again. He made no indication of doing so so I literally lifted him up and put him on second step down with a push towards the pavement. She later said thank you. I said,"You take care on here".

SLF
 

Passengers = Self Loading Freight

I always preferred plain freight flying - in the dark.

Good luck guys....

DB :ouch:

I was scolded for talking to a fellow passenger during the safety brief.

I was in fact asking if the fellow passenger could repeat the instruction-re lifevests under seats-when there was a large sign on the overheads saying "LIFEVEST STOWED OVERHEAD" above each seat.

Oh how I enjoyed timing the bell push just prior to them plumped their fat asses before to the cab turning onto the runway.
Oh Yes, the sudden visualization on their faces of giving the WRONG preflight brief, indeed, revenge is sweet.:}


wrayairflightfromprestwicktostanstead